The Haunting of Maddy Clare by Simone St. James

had not spoken to me at all.
    But how foolish was I, to think that Alistair needed my protection?
    Alistair lifted his eyebrows at me, and Matthew put a glass of water on the table. Reluctantly, I put the idea of lying away. These were grown men, experienced men, men who had been to war and seen unspeakable things. Why be afraid of a ghostly shadow? How could I think I could protect them—I, who was so afraid and unworldly next to both of them? Stupid to think that I could simply face Maddy Clare on my own.
    “She spoke to me,” I said.
    Alistair’s eyes widened in excitement. “My God. What did she say?”
    And I started from the beginning, and I told them everything.
    When I finished, Alistair stood and slammed his notebook to the table with a bang. He paced the room, running his hands through his hair. “Incredible,” he said. “Incredible. This is the most advanced manifestation anyone has ever seen. This is more than just a shadow. It’s what we’ve been looking for, Matthew. It’s
awareness
, don’t you see?”
    Matthew, leaning against the sideboard, looked down into his empty water glass and said nothing.
    “Five years,” Alistair went on. “Sixty-four confirmed manifestations I’ve witnessed in the last five years alone. And nothing ever, even remotely, like this. This is the greatest discovery in the history of the field. Physical manifestation. Voice. Reaction to stimuli.” He shook his head. I had never seen him so excited, so happy. He could not stand still. “This will make our names, all of us. There’s no way it can be faked. How to grab a human being and levitate her into the air? It can’t be done. This is a true manifestation, fully documentable.” He turned to us, eyes alight, and said what I most dreaded. “I’m going into that barn.”
    “You can’t!” I said.
    He turned his gaze on me, though he was hardly seeing me. “She asked for me. How can I not go?”
    “It doesn’t sound like a good idea, Alistair,” Matthew added.
    “I’m going to document her,” Alistair went on as if we hadn’t spoken. “I’m going to record her and get photographs and fully document this. She can’t escape me.” He grinned, a narrow grin that unsettled me. “I’m going to hunt her down.”
    The chill his words gave me made me almost physically ill. My mind was groggy and throbbing, the way it is after waking from a nightmare, thrashing and still unsure of reality. Cold sweat ran down my temples. I pictured Alistair going in there, Maddy seeing him. I felt something yawning and avaricious inside me, something almost gleeful—not my emotions, but Maddy’s, as if she were somewhere inside me. The thought was so horrifying I pushed it from my mind.
    “Sarah,” came Matthew’s voice from somewhere over my shoulder. “Are you quite all right?”
    I put my hand to my forehead. “I really think I might lie down a moment.”
    “Of course, of course,” said Alistair. “I will have some tea sent up—”
    A short, sharp knock sounded at the door. Without a pause for an answer, the door opened and Mrs. Clare stepped in. Her face was haggard and alarmed.
    “This is terrible,” she said without preamble. “What happened in there, Mr. Gellis? You promised us you would not go in the barn yourself. I only saw Miss Piper from the window this morning.”
    “I assure you I did not, Mrs. Clare. What do you mean?”
    Her tired gaze turned to me. “Maddy is as agitated as I’ve ever seen her. What did you say to her?”
    I shook my head. Alistair spoke for me. “It seems Maddy was in an angry mood. We are still debriefing Miss Piper.”
    How smooth he was! How honest he sounded! He wanted to shield Mrs. Clare from the truth, it seemed. Perhaps to hide his own intentions of getting into the barn despite her orders.
    Her eyes, lined with exhaustion, never left me. “The noise is going to drive me mad if it keeps up. Thumps and crashes—I didn’tthink there was anything left to destroy in